All About Android 129: Another Tutorial

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Ars Technica's Ron Amadeo made an interesting discovery when reviewing the new Samsung Note 3: That there is some special sauce on the device that is actively gaming benchmark tests. He explains that in normal app usage, the phone shuts off inactive cores and throttles the speed of the device down to conserve power. But when a large number of Benchmarking apps are launched, it recognizes this and activates all cores at top speed. This recognition happened by way of the decice recognizing the package names of popular benchmarking apps.

So, Ron renamed the Geekbench benchmarking app to Stealthbench and sure enough, the phone ran the app in normal mode, giving Ron a true look at the untainted benchmarked specs. After running comparisons, the Note 3 was goosing the numbers by 20 percent or so.

Strangely, the untainted numbers still have the Note 3 coming out ahead of what is likely the closest competitor at the moment, the LG G2.

It's also possible, Ron says, that the Note 10 tablet has similar voodoo happening under the hood as well.

Does this matter yet? Should benchmarks measure normal performance or peak performance?

Glass News

First, third party apps by be coming to the next Glass update, XE10. Sources are confirming to Geek.com that devs will have access to the GDK (Glass Dev Kit), which means they can make apps that do more than just push and retrieve images, audio and video using the Mirror API. The GDK means devs will finally have access to the motion tracking sensors and create customized voice commands for launching their app from the main menu. As well, expect a timed announcement from Google revealing the devs they've already been working with and what they might have to offer. Sometime in October.

If you have yet to use Glass for yourself and want to check it out, hit up the cross-country tour! Try on Glass, chat with the Glass team and indulge yourself with Google's food and drink. First stop is Durham on Oct 5.

Hardware

"Fire OS" with better enterprise features for secure browsing and email.Mayday, a 24/7 customer support picture-in-picture solution (you can mute them and block the from seeing your screen if you choose) Free.

New pictures, and a log that supposedly details the specs and offerings:

Likely has wireless charging, Miracast support, more hints at the ability to theme the OS/notification bar (possibly a color scheme picker for the oS in KitKat), and the previously leaked specs (a 5-inch, 442 ppi full HD display; 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800 CPU; 2GB RAM; 8-megapixel rear camera and 1.2-megapixel front; a full host of sensors; and LTE radio and NFC capability.)

The date of October 14 as the reveal has been floating around as well.

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30:39

So what is going on with Chromcast? Pocket Casts states they are ready but GOOGLE is not approving it. Plex is still not available. I see no support approved for it other than the initial apps that shipped with it. What is going on? Did I waste money on another failed streaming product from Google??

Drag vertically down from the toolbar to enter into the tab switcher view.

Drag down from the menu to open the menu and select the item you want without having to lift your finger.

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1:03:21

You rave all the time about Google Play and while it seems great, those of us in countries like Canada can’t get it. I use Songza but it not the same because you can’t control the music. I also
have a 14 year old who is frustrated because she has a hard time buying music on Android. She is pushing for an iPhone just so she can get the music. Do you have any alternatives that you can suggest to play so my daughter does not go over to the dark side?